Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia said: “Our mortgages and savings business continue to flourish with gross mortgage lending of £2.0 billion and a £0.9 billion increase in deposits during the quarter.

“Our approach, including the strict and consistent application of underwriting standards, continues to support a low and stable cost of risk.”

In its 2017 outlook, Virgin Money said: “We watch the increase in consumer indebtedness closely and continue to lend responsibly to our prime books of mortgage and credit card customers who are showing no signs of strain in the current environment …

“Mortgage competition remains strong in certain segments and our nimble approach to distribution and pricing enables us to manage product price and volume in accordance with expectations …

“Cards competition has increased and we have not followed competitors into top of the table pricing.

“We prioritise asset quality over balance growth, despite which we remain confident of achieving £3 billion of prime credit card balances by the end of 2017.”